It Really Hauls Ass

Saving the planet can be a real pain in the butt. Just ask Peter Bethune, who's powering his speedboat with biodiesel made of fat from his backside. In May, the 41-year-old New Zealander embarks on a voyage to promote the use of renewable fuels and to break the record for circumnavigating the globe. (Bethune hopes to finish in 65 days – 10 days faster than the current speedboat record.) His eco-friendly vessel, Earthrace, is a wave-piercing 78-foot trimaran capable of hitting 45 knots (58 mph). Of course, nobody's butt is big enough to sustain a 27,600-mile journey. Bethune's contribution amounts to only a liter of fuel; the rest comes from vegetable oils and other animal fats. Besides, liposuction hurts. "I was bruised all over," he says. "It was a personal sacrifice."

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Fuel by the numbers
Gallons of biodiesel that can be made from one acre of soybeans: 50
Arable acres in the US: 427 million
Gallons of gasoline used by the average American driver in a year: 464
Drivers in the US: 198 million
Arable acres needed to make enough biodiesel for all of them: 1.8 billion